{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,24]],"date-time":"2026-02-24T17:13:54Z","timestamp":1771953234810,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,29]],"date-time":"2025-05-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1748476800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["NRF-2022R1A5A1030700, NRF2022R1I1A1A01055643"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NRF-2022R1A5A1030700, NRF2022R1I1A1A01055643"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Chile grants","award":["Fondecyt 1210131, ANID PIA\/APOYO AFB230003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Fondecyt 1210131, ANID PIA\/APOYO AFB230003"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Panic-induced herding in individuals often leads to social disasters, resulting in people being trapped and trampled in crowd stampedes triggered by panic. We introduce a novel approach that offers fresh insights into studying the phenomenon of asymmetrical panic-induced escape. Our approach is based on the concept of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB), a fundamental governing mechanism in the Physical Sciences. By applying the principles of SSB, we conjecture that the onset of disastrous effects of panic can be understood as a SSB phenomenon, and we formulate the process accordingly. We highlight that this way of understanding panic escape leads to simple general measures of preventing catastrophic situations, by considering two crucial parameters: <jats:italic>population density<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>external information<\/jats:italic>. The interplay of these two parameters is responsible for either breaking or restoring the symmetry of a system. We describe how these parameters are set by design conditions as well as crowd control. Based on these parameters, we discuss strategies for preventing potential social disasters caused by asymmetrical panic escape.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0322862","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,29]],"date-time":"2025-05-29T17:31:11Z","timestamp":1748539871000},"page":"e0322862","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Spontaneous symmetry breaking and panic escape"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Choong","family":"Sun Kim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Claudio","family":"Dib","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-3169-1350","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Sechul","family":"Oh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0322862.ref001"},{"issue":"6803","key":"pone.0322862.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"487","DOI":"10.1038\/35035023","article-title":"Simulating dynamical features of escape panic","volume":"407","author":"D Helbing","year":"2000","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0322862.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"362","DOI":"10.2307\/800813","article-title":"Panic at \u201cThe who concert stampede\u2019\u2019: an empirical assessment","volume":"34","author":"NR Johnson","year":"1987","journal-title":"Soc Probl"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0322862.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"205","DOI":"10.1177\/108602669300700304","article-title":"Football stadia disasters in the United Kingdom: learning from tragedy?","volume":"7","author":"D Elliott","year":"1993","journal-title":"Indust Environ Crisis Quart"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref005","article-title":"South Korea\u2019s deadly Halloween crush was avoidable, experts say","author":"J Lee","year":"2002","journal-title":"REUTERS"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"507","DOI":"10.1016\/S0378-4371(01)00141-8","article-title":"Simulation of pedestrian dynamics using a two-dimensional cellular automaton","volume":"295","author":"C Burstedde","year":"2001","journal-title":"Phys A: Statist Mech Appl"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"545","DOI":"10.1016\/S0378-4371(00)00630-0","article-title":"Scaling behavior of crowd flow outside a hall","volume":"292","author":"Y Tajima","year":"2001","journal-title":"Phys A: Statist Mech Appl"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"260","DOI":"10.1016\/S0378-4371(02)00857-9","article-title":"Simulation of evacuation processes using a bionics-inspired cellular automaton model for pedestrian dynamics","volume":"312","author":"A Kirchner","year":"2002","journal-title":"Phys A: Statist Mech Appl"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"609","DOI":"10.1016\/S0378-4371(02)00987-1","article-title":"Streaming, disruptive interference and power-law behavior in the exit dynamics of confined pedestrians","volume":"312","author":"GJ Perez","year":"2002","journal-title":"Phys A: Statist Mech Appl"},{"issue":"21","key":"pone.0322862.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11947","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2031912100","article-title":"Self-organized queuing and scale-free behavior in real escape panic","volume":"100","author":"C Saloma","year":"2003","journal-title":"Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"067101","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.67.067101","article-title":"Lattice gas simulation of experimentally studied evacuation dynamics","volume":"67","author":"D Helbing","year":"2003","journal-title":"Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0322862.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"643","DOI":"10.1086\/498139","article-title":"Symmetry breaking in escaping ants","volume":"166","author":"E Altshuler","year":"2005","journal-title":"Am Nat"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1088\/978-1-6817-4357-8ch3","article-title":"Spontaneous symmetry breaking","author":"D Sinha","year":"2016","journal-title":"Explicit symmetry breaking in electrodynamic systems and electromagnetic radiation"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref014","article-title":"An introduction to spontaneous symmetry breaking","author":"A Beekman","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sci Post Phys Lect Notes"},{"key":"pone.0322862.ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103644","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2021.103644","article-title":"Do people follow neighbors? 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